


venerate

by azureforest



Series: plucking daisies (i do, i do.) [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Companionable Snark, Established Relationship, M/M, Wedding Fluff, instead of crying at your wedding, try crying before it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24614938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azureforest/pseuds/azureforest
Summary: this is the part that matters: there's red daisies in his hair. they're in the chapel, waiting for the bells to ring out. they're very nervous. listen to the part that matters.(to the seven hells and beyond with formalities, they say, bending the rules til just before they break. it's perfect in every way.)
Relationships: Au Ra Characters/Elezen Characters (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: plucking daisies (i do, i do.) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2005939
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	venerate

**Author's Note:**

> for ammy.  
> references [exalt.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17951915)
> 
> HAPPY GAY RAT WEDDING ANNIVERSARY [BREAKS BOTTLE OVER OWN HEAD AND STARTS CRYING]

The chapel is empty. The room should be, as well, but it isn’t. Valerien cards his hands through red hair let loose, doing it into careful braids, undoing them, redoing them again- Idleness rather than proper preparation, all anticipation and nerves and looking for distraction.

The truth is like the sun. A star, too bright to look upon. A fact, too overwhelming to observe for too long. So his eyes find familiar blossoms instead, linger overlong.

“Those… flowers.” Quiet realisation. Long fingers gently trace the petals adorning the clip tucked into Jochi’s hairline, green eyes trained upon the tiny blossoms in silent awe. Idly, Valerien continues the motion, brushes his knuckles over red hair, ghosts over the base of the other’s horns with his fingertips. 

“Red daisies,” the au ra murmurs, scratching at the scales at his jaw. He’s avoiding eye contact, staring off at the white curtains, but still leaning his head into the elezen’s touch- Lets him cradle his jaw in the palm of his hand, thumb over his cheek. “Like back in Ul’dah.”

Valerien laughs, bewildered. “You remembered that?”

The other furrows his brow with an annoyed huff. “Of course I did. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well." The elezen’s hands pause, resting at the scales on Jochi’s cheek, under his half-lidded eye. He does not point out the faint tremble in them, but takes note of it. “We’ve been many places. I’ve done many things. It was but one day out of many- I didn’t think that, hm.”

Jochi closes his eyes, awash in the sound of the other’s breathing, waiting in silence until the rhythm hitches, and his words return.

“I suppose it was obvious in hindsight, that you would remember.” Valerien’s eyes flit back to the flowers, and his smile is warm. There’s a long, long moment, staying as if mesmerized, magnetized, slowly being pulled into Jochi’s orbit- And then he gives, leans in, a quick peck to the other’s temple.

“Full glad am I that you did.”

Jochi sighs, head tilting as if considering pursuing the movement, not bothering to wipe away the smudge of lipgloss the elezen had left in his wake. But he stays, oddly still, his mouth pressed into a thin line- One of those moments where the barbs upon his tongue were found wanting, and he searched not just to soften the blow, but to convey the ache in its entirety. The full extent of the words digging into his chest, prising his heart open to bleed upon the elezen’s polished shoes. Perhaps that flower language shite had a very good point.

Not one to let some stupid plants speak for him, he tries to find the words, anyways. "... Don’t make me say it.”

The elezen blinks. “Say what, exactly? T’was a genuine surprise.” Jochi breathes a long-suffering sigh, brows furrowing- Face turned towards Valerien, red-coal fixating on green. His skin was warm against the elezen’s hand, breath slow and shuddering.

“You know- Their meaning.” Jochi says, roughly, but softly, softly. “Me, making you happy. It stuck with me. It wouldn’t leave and. I thought-”

Valerien’s hand stills. Jochi does not move away- looking down instead, glancing at his hands curled into tight fists in his lap.

He unclenches them, and rolls his eyes. “... I can’t say this, you’d never let me hear the end of it.”

“The rate at which you’re going, I reckon I’ll be too embarrassed to heckle you about it overmuch.”

“We’re getting married.” Jochi continues, just a little too fast, the obvious echoing in the chapel. Yet despite its obviousness, the two of them find themselves struck dumb by the reality sinking in- That nameless feeling clumsily tugging, pulling at Jochi’s heartstrings like a child attempting to play a morin khuur, crescendoing to a point he feels like he might be pulled apart.

“We- We are,” Valerian echoes, his hands now obvious in their shaking- His legs give a little, and he sits heavily on the chair across from the au ra. They share a long glance- Flitting away at the same time, taking in the chapel, the low lights, the wrinkle in Valerien’s shirt, the almost-forgotten smudge of lipgloss on Jochi’s temple. Their eyes meet again, only half-meaning to.

And they laugh. It’s nervous in tone and disbelieving in what is laid plain before them, strange, different, daunting, but somehow hardly any different- Laced all the way through with joy, blind joy. Unspeakable and blissful. And by the gods, it is overwhelming and terrifying and exhilarating and beautiful in the same breath, like each poem Valerien wrote condensed into raw yearning and wanting and  _ having _ , the two coalescing into- Fulfilment. Completeness. Eternity. There, on the horizon, greeting them like a new dawn.

“Oh, Nhaama fuck me sideways. We’re getting  _ married. _ ” Jochi laughs.

Valerien shakes quietly, head bowed to conceal a grin. “Ceremony of Eternal Bonding. The two of us. Oh Fury, I couldn’t have ever imagined…”

“Us?”

“No, heavens, no, just.” A hand reaches out blindly, alights on Jochi’s knee. Jochi takes it in his own as Valerien wipes a tear from his eyes. “We don’t truly need any of this shite, do we?”

“The banners and flowers are disgustingly kitschy, yes.” Jochi scoffs, sneer soft around the edges. “Who made the moogles officiators, anyways?”

A snort in response, the elezen’s other hand comes to clasp Jochi’s as well, his palms warm, if not a little sweaty. “Right? Because we don’t truly need vows, or ceremonies, or all these frills and ribbons, or any contracts or toasts or grand parties.” Valerien says, eyes bright and shining, “Yet here we are, here we are in all our entirety, and you look as beautiful as anything I’ve ever beheld in my life and I’m thinking I’d’ve been  _ very _ sorry to miss having something like this before me. You. You, you, you. I  _ love _ you, I love  _ you _ .”

“You’re spewing flowery shite,” Jochi wheezes, “you’re mad, fucking crazy, you softhearted bastard, you arse, you wretched siren.” His grip tightens on the other’s clasping hands, his free one traveling to the back of the elezen’s head to pull him forwards, press their foreheads together- fingers lacing a bit too naturally into brown locks, sending Valerien’s bun into disarray. “We don’t. You’re right. But I wouldn’t miss you like this for the world either, toasts, formal fuckery, whatever be damned. I love you too, you know that? I love you.”

The elezen laughs, tilts his head so their noses bump like they so oft do, at the precipice of closing the gap. Jochi matches the gesture, eyes half-lidded to take in fluttering eyelids, warmed cheeks, the curl of his lips. An impulse strikes him, and he grasps at it with both hands. 

“Eri. You want to hear my vows, right now?”

“Wh- But-” The elezen starts a little, draws back a fraction. The ceremony is in two bells, at best. “Jochi, I don’t think we’re allowed to--”

“Fuck that.” Valerien snorts at the response, and Jochi pushes their foreheads together again, grips the other’s hand like a lifeline, feels his heart soar and get stuck somewhere in his throat. “You already said it doesn’t matter yourself, you damned hypocrite.”

A sigh. “ _ Jochi. _ ” The reprimand is entirely performative, and like that, the stage is his.

And his voice cracks anyways, because he was never an actor- And especially not a poet- But still he speaks, earnest and clear.

“For starters- To hells with any solemn oaths on the moon, the sun and stars. To hells with oaths on the Twelve or whatever other deity might think to turn their eyes on us- To the seven damn  _ hells _ to whatever thinks it can bind my love to you to some outside power. Forever may be a  _ damn  _ long time, but if I can spend that by your side- Then I swear, by everything I am and will be, to be worthy of those daisies you placed on my head that day, to be worthy of  _ you _ , Eri. By everything I am and will be, I swear to make you  _ happy. _ ”

The next breath he takes doesn’t feel like enough. Had he said enough? It never feels like enough, but always like too much. Valerien’s hands are shaking. More than before. The elezen, he- He hiccups.

“Eri.” Jochi whispers, fighting down the feeling of his face heating up. “That’s it.”

He gets a suppressed sniff from the elezen in response. The hand the au ra isn’t clutching comes up to rub at his eyes, coupled with a shuddering breath- And then Valerien’s sliding out of his chair to pull Jochi forwards into a quivering embrace.

He can feel the tears wetting the shoulder of his jacket. They’re both shaking. That’s fine. They stay like that for a while, and it’s familiar peace in unfamiliar territory, a path walked at day rather than by moonlight. The meaning in it is loud and clear, more than could ever be in verse and song.

Valerien’s hair is a mess. Jochi’s suit has an unconscionable amount of wrinkles in it. A vow already spoken, both grooms in the same room. To hell with it in all but deed, indeed.

Neither really care. It’s perfect. It’s all they need.

“I’m not telling you mine,” the elezen finally chokes out. “My vows. not yet.”


End file.
